Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42

Posted on June 23, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Satan and Evil, Suffering | Tags: Accuser, Adversary, Adversary of God, Age, Almighty, animal, Answer from God, authority, Bible, Bildad, Book of Job, Books of the Bible, Breath, counsel, courage, Covenant, Creation, Creator, Creator deity, Day of Jehovah, Death, Elihu, Eliphaz, Elohim, Evil, Evildoers, failure, Faith, forgiving, God, God speaking, God's character, Godliness, Gods knowledge, Gods Word, Good people, Holy Spirit, Human, iniquity, Jehovah, Job, judgement, Knowing God, Knowledge, Listening, living creature, Lord of lords, nature, Old Testament, oppressed, oppressor, patience, Prayer, religiosity, Resurrection, rise, Satan, Seasons, Silence of God, Sin, Spirit, Spirit of Human, Suffering, temporarily situation, Terror, time, Understanding, Ungodliness, Wealth, weather, Wickedness, Wisdom, Zophar |

In his concluding speech in chapter 31, Job did demand that God appear before him, and in a sense, it is somewhat surprising for Elihu to appear instead.  But can a man command God to appear? Do we have the right or authority to demand the Most High to appear before us?
Job’s concluding remarks in chapter 31 could unlikely in some way compel the Almighty Elohimto appear.

Elihu came in between the discussion because he found lots of things said to Job but also about God were not right. He had found that multiple words against God were uttered, charging God of doing nothing about wickedness or even using evil things to vindicate. Though we can find some kind of truth and authority in the words from Job’s three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, they grated on the nerves of Elihu and angered God. It was not because God kept His silence that He did not listen or did not care, nor lost control over nation or man (Job 34:29-30). Also Elihu had the wrong idea about God working with His people. This sometimes arrogant looking person ends up offering a similar argument to that of the three friends: God is greater than man (Job 33:12) and thus he must have intended to warn or rebuke Job (Job 33: 14–30). He even hopes that Job’s trials will continue either until he recants or, if he does not recant, until he dies (Job 34:36-37) and states Job’s complaint that godliness avails a man nothing (Job 35:1-4). He also declared that God is too lofty to be affected either by godliness or ungodliness, which only affect other people (Job 35:5-8 ). An other fault brought forwards to those who are unlucky is that unanswered prayers would be because of the lack of faith of those who pray and to the emptiness of the prayer (Job 35:-16). Elihu at moments continued to attack Job in the line of the other three older friends (e.g., Job 34: 10-37; 35:16). He also suggested that Job had not recognized and maybe even had ignored the ways in which God had spoken to him (Job 33:14). The continual appeal for Job by the four friends to simply repent of whatever evil he has done is an obvious misdiagnosis, in light of the prologue (chapters 1-2) and on the other elements Job brought forward to plea for his justice, recapitulated by Elihu at the opening of his speech (Job 33:6, 9; 34:5-9).

Elihu, who sometimes handled as if he were thinking to be like a prophet, shed already a further light on the matter that the creator of the universe cannot be unjust (Job 32:18–20; 34:10-28). Perhaps we may be called men of understanding, but there are a lot of things we do not understand and who are to complex to grasp and to get over with. Often we can’t make God out because He is beyond us. We sometimes can’t get His meaning or miss the point of what He says and does. The Spirit God seems difficult to grasp, but He is not so incomprehensible as we think. We just should concentrate more on the essentials of Him.

In the Book of Job we got an idea in what ways evil come to this earth and how evil people suffer as well (Job 15:14-16, 20-35). Failure comes to many. In the many speeches from chapters 3 to 37 we heard the flawless logic but wounding thrusts of those who insisted on the traditional theology that it was indisputable that God is almighty, perfectly just and that no human can be pure in Gods sight. On the other hand we have to face the problem of godly, just people who suffer. In this Book from the Book of Books the author can give us some encouragement by showing us that our suffering provides an occasion like no other for exemplifying what true godliness is for human beings. As in the other books of the Bible we can get a picture of righteous people who suffer ‘unjust’ but, though they have to fight against certain thoughts, still continue to go strong for their beloved Creator and His creation.

When we started this study of the Book of Job we mentioned the accuser of God. Satan, the adversary who brought a radical assault on God and godly people. When God called up the name of Job before the accuser and testified to his righteous, the Almighty is called a fool and His followers even more fools. Is it not that humans prefer to love the gifts of the Creator then the Creator Himself? It is up to men to proof that he not tries to pleases God merely for the sake of his benefits. Job did good things he told us, but not in the hope to get something in return. Are you “religious” and “good” because it pays? Do you want something in return for the good things you do?
That is an other subject tackled in the Book of Job. Which position do we as humans want to take in our life here on earth? How do we want to place ourselves against other people. How do we want to face the One from who we get all this around us? Job faced toward God with anguish, puzzlement, anger and bitter complaints. How do we want to look at our Creator? And when we do not hear our answers, at first, answered how can we cope with that seemingly silent Authority? but are we sure that this God, ruler of the universe, is really silent? We should know that He has given His Words to be with us every day. Most of the answers we have to know are handed over to us. We just have to grasp them. It is to us to take them at hand and to read them, to be able to hear them. So we cannot say God does not give the answers to us. He has given them already to all those who want to have them.

Only we do have to understand that we can not desire to get to know God thoroughly. Longing to know God is very good. But to read Him like a book is not possible. It is not so easy to have God taped in full. We cannot expect hat at the end of our life we shall know everything about God. It would be foolish wisdom to think that. We shall not be able to control everything, because that belongs to God. But He is willing to share parts of His knowledge with us. He is willing to give wisdom to His creatures. However Job’s experience makes bitterly clear to him that his friends “wisdom” cannot fathom the truth of his situation. No, the wisdom we can get does not bring the answers we would like to hear or see. Sometimes it can frustrate us. It can make us hungry. Wisdom and truth is discerned through hearing, just as the quality of food is discerned through tasting (Job 34:3). We better listen today to the Wisdom of God to get some ray of understanding some things and be  satisfied with what we already can get for answers at the moment. Patience is a good virtue. We should be pleased already that we can receive enough wisdom to comprehend those difficult creatures around us. And as we saw from the different answers of Job friends we do not always have to go by age, or by popularity. We always should remember that from these creaturely things, we as humans cannot learn all of God’s ways. And who are we mere human beings to to talk back to God? Does any object that is created riposte to its maker or will what is formed say to him who formed it, “why did you make me this way?” (Isaiah 29:16,45:9; Romans 9:20) “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?” (Romans 9:20 ASV)
Who in the world do we think we are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mould it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?”
For us it is perhaps best to recognise who is the Superior and not to deny God above (Job 31:28 ), recognising also the fact that our time on earth is also just a temporarily situation, and that the man who responds submissively to God’s dealings with him will regain health and joy (Job 33:25-28 ) Yes the Book of Job sheds also a light on what we might expect after death. When we die we shall all land up in the grave, the oppressors and the oppressed, they all shall perish and we shall not be able to take anything of our wealth or fame into our grave, the place of  departure (Job 27:15-23; Psalm 164:4 Isaiah 38:18). For the wealthy as well as the poor, the happy as the sufferers it shall be be as the animals (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20) When God does not look at them any more, or His face is veiled, they shall be troubled; when He takes away their breath, they come to an end, and go back to the dust. “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; Thou {1} takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust. {1) Or gatherest in}” (Psalms 104:29 ASV) “and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7 ASV) Let us take Paul’s words into our hearth: “We speak wisdom, however, among them that are fullgrown: yet a wisdom not of this {1} world, nor of the rulers of this {1} world, who are coming to nought: {1) Or age; and so in verses 7, 8; but not in verse 12}” (1 Corinthians 2:6 ASV)
Job will pass the supreme test of all true godliness, namely, to live by the wisdom God had given him, having the fear of the Most High Jehovah God and to depart from evil (Job 28:28 ),  and acknowledging the limits of human wisdom. Are we prepared to be satisfied with the brain we got and with what it can cope?

Elihu repeatedly stated that the purpose of God’s speaking to a person in the way he described is to keep “his soul from the pit” (also Job 33:18, 22, 24, 28, 30). Thus he implies that Job’s suffering may be a corrective of his overall path rather than simply punishment for some hidden sin. Though God does not five a warning finger to Elihu we can find God answer in the rest of the Bible. God response to Job will include some vocabulary and references that are similar to portions of Elihu Barachel (meaning either “may God bless” or “God has blessed”) his speeches, but He does not commend either Elihu’s suggested reasons for Job’s suffering or his anger against Job.

Elihu had played on the words “spirit” and “breath” in his early speeches (see also Job 33:4; 34:14) in the way most likely to evoke Job’s earlier plea (Job 27:2–3) as he asserted his own right to speak. But he rightly let us know that God is the Spirit, and it is His breath, the live in Him that brings us His Words. It is this breath or  Holy “Spirit” which is the “power” that can enlighten us.

“For he (God) needeth not further to consider a man, That he should go before God in judgment.” (Job 34:23 ASV)  So God Almighty will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into judgement with God. Let us look at these words of the Lord of lords where He asks what evil or iniquity people have seen in Him that they have gone far from Him, and have walked after what is false,  worthless idols, worthlessness, vanity, and are become vain or become themselves nothings?
“thus saith Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” (Jeremiah 2:5 ASV)

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Brenton Translation
1851 by Lancelot Brenton

Job Chapters 38-41

Job 38:1 And after Elius had ceased from speaking, the Lord spoke to Job through the whirlwind and clouds, [saying],
Job 38:2 Who is this that hides counsel from me, and confines words in [his] heart, and thinks to conceal [them] from me?

Job 38:3 Gird thy loins like a man; and I will ask thee, and do thou answer me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I founded the earth? tell me now, if thou hast knowledge,
Job 38:5 who set the measures of it, if thou knowest? or who stretched a line upon it?
Job 38:6 On what are its rings fastened? and who is he that laid the corner-stone upon it?

Job 38:7 When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice.
Job 38:8 And I shut up the sea with gates, when it rushed out, coming forth out its mother’s womb.
Job 38:9 And I made a cloud its clothing, and swathed it in mist.
Job 38:10 And I set bounds to it, surrounding it with bars and gates.
Job 38:11 And I said to it, Hitherto shalt thou come, but thou shalt not go beyond, but thy waves shall be confined within thee.
Job 38:12 Or did I order the morning light in thy time; and [did] the morning star [then first] see his appointed place;
Job 38:13 to lay hold of the extremities of the earth, to cast out the ungodly out of it?

Job 38:14 Or didst thou take clay of the ground, and form a living creature, and set it with the power of speech upon the earth?
Job 38:15 And hast thou removed light from the ungodly, and crushed the arm of the proud?
Job 38:16 Or hast thou gone to the source of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep?
Job 38:17 And do the gates of death open to thee for fear; and did the porters of hell quake when they saw thee?
Job 38:18 And hast thou been instructed in the breadth of the [whole earth] under heaven? tell me now, what is the extent of it?
Job 38:19 And in what kind of a land does the light dwell? and of what kind is the place of darkness?
Job 38:20 If thou couldest bring me to their [utmost] boundaries, and if also thou knowest their paths;
Job 38:21 I know then that thou wert born at that time, and the number of thy years is great.

Job 38:22 But hast thou gone to the treasures of snow? and hast thou seen the treasures of hail?
Job 38:23 And is there a store [of them], for thee against the time of [thine] enemies, for the day of wars and battle?
Job 38:24 And whence proceeds the frost? or [whence] is the south wind dispersed over the [whole world] under heaven?

Job 38:25 And who prepared a course for the violent rain, and a way for the thunders;
Job 38:26 to rain upon the land where [there is] no man, the wilderness, where there is not a man in it; so as to feed the untrodden and uninhabited [land],
Job 38:27 and cause it to send forth a crop of green herbs?
Job 38:28 Who is the rain’s father? and who has generated the drops of dew?

Job 38:29 And out of whose womb comes the ice? and who has produced the frost in the sky,
Job 38:30 which descends like flowing water? who has terrified the face of the ungodly?

Job 38:31 And dost thou understand the band of Pleias, and hast thou opened the barrier of Orion?
Job 38:32 Or wilt thou reveal Mazuroth in his season, and the evening star with his rays? Wilt thou guide them?

Job 38:33 And knowest thou the changes of heaven, or the events which take place together under heaven?
Job 38:34 And wilt thou call a cloud with thy voice, and will it obey thee with a violent shower of much rain?
Job 38:35 And wilt thou send lightnings, and they shall go? and shall they say to thee, What is [thy pleasure]?

Job 38:36 And who has given to women skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery?
Job 38:37 And who is he that numbers the clouds in wisdom, and has bowed the heaven [down] to the earth?
Job 38:38 For it is spread out as dusty earth, and I have cemented it as one hewn stone to another.

Job 38:39 And wilt thou hunt a prey for the lions? and satisfy the desires of the serpents?
Job 38:40 For they fear in their lairs, and lying in wait couch in the woods.
Job 38:41 And who has prepared food for the raven? for its young ones wander and cry to the Lord, in search of food.

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Job 39:1 [Say] if thou knowest the time of the bringing forth of the wild goats of the rock, and [if] thou hast marked the calving of the hinds:
Job 39:2 and [if] thou has hast numbered the full months of their being with young, and [if] thou hast relieved their pangs:
Job 39:3 and hast reared their young without fear; and wilt thou loosen their pangs?
Job 39:4 Their young will break forth; they will be multiplied with offspring: [their young] will go forth, and will not return to them.

Job 39:5 And who is he that sent forth the wild ass free? and who loosed his bands?
Job 39:6 whereas I made his habitation the wilderness, and the salt land his coverts.

Job 39:7 He laughs to scorn the multitude of the city, and hears not the chiding of the tax-gatherer.
Job 39:8 He will survey the mountains [as] his pasture, and he seeks after every green thing.

Job 39:9 And will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or to lie down at thy manger?
Job 39:10 And wilt thou bind his yoke with thongs, or will he plough furrows for thee in the plain?
Job 39:11 And dost thou trust him, because his strength is great? and wilt thou commit thy works to him?
Job 39:12 And wilt thou believe that he will return to thee thy seed, and bring [it] in [to] thy threshing-floor?

Job 39:13 The peacock has a beautiful wing: if the stork and the ostrich conceive, [it is worthy of notice],
Job 39:14 for [the ostrich] will leave her eggs in the ground, and warm them on the dust,
Job 39:15 and has forgotten that the foot will scatter them, and the wild beasts of the field trample them.
Job 39:16 She has hardened [herself] against her young ones, as though [she bereaved] not herself: she labours in vain without fear.
Job 39:17 For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding.
Job 39:18 In her season she will lift herself on high; she will scorn the horse and his rider.

Job 39:19 Hast thou invested the horse with strength, and clothed his neck with terror?
Job 39:20 And hast thou clad him in perfect armour, and made his breast glorious with courage?
Job 39:21 He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain.
Job 39:22 He laughs to scorn a king as he meets him, and will by no means turn back from the sword.
Job 39:23 The bow and sword resound against him; and [his] rage will swallow up the ground:
Job 39:24 and he will not believe until the trumpet sounds.
Job 39:25 And when the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! and afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing.

Job 39:26 And does the hawk remain steady by thy wisdom, having spread out her wings unmoved, looking toward the region of the south?
Job 39:27 And does the eagle rise at thy command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest,
Job 39:28 on a crag of a rock, and in a secret [place]?
Job 39:29 Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.
Job 39:30 And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found.

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Job 40:1 (39:31) And the Lord God answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 (39:32) Will [any one] pervert judgment with the Mighty One? and he that reproves God, let him return it for answer.

Job 40:3 (39:33) And Job answered and said to the Lord,
Job 40:4 (39:34) Why do I yet plead? being rebuked even while reproving the Lord: hearing such things, whereas I am nothing: and what shall I answer to these [arguments]? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 (39:35) I have spoken once; but I will not do so a second time.

Job 40:6 (40:1) And the Lord yet again answered and spoke to Job out of the cloud, [saying],

Job 40:7 (40:2) Nay, gird up now thy loins like a man; and I will ask thee, and do thou answer me.
Job 40:8 (40:3) Do not set aside my judgment: and dost thou think that I have dealt with thee in any other way, than that thou mightest appear to be righteous?

Job 40:9 (40:4) Hast thou an arm like the Lord’s? or dost thou thunder with a voice like his?
Job 40:10 (40:5) Assume now a lofty bearing and power; and clothe thyself with glory and honour.
Job 40:11 (40:6) And send forth messengers with wrath; and lay low every haughty one.
Job 40:12 (40:7) Bring down also the proud man; and consume at once the ungodly.
Job 40:13 (40:8) And hide them together in the earth; and fill their faces with shame.
Job 40:14 (40:9) [Then] will I confess that thy right hand can save [thee].

Job 40:15 (40:10) But now look at the wild beasts with thee; they eat grass like oxen.
Job 40:16 (40:11) Behold now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
Job 40:17 (40:12) He sets up his tail like a cypress; and his nerves are wrapped together.
Job 40:18 (40:13) His sides are sides of brass; and his backbone is [as] cast iron.

Job 40:19 (40:14) This is the chief of the creation of the Lord; made to be played with by his angels.
Job 40:20 (40:15) And when he has gone up to a steep mountain, he causes joy to the quadrupeds in the deep.

Job 40:21 (40:16) He lies under trees of every kind, by the papyrus, and reed, and bulrush.
Job 40:22 (40:17) And the great trees make a shadow over him with their branches, and [so do] the bushes of the field.
Job 40:23 (40:18) If there should be a flood, he will not perceive it; he trust that Jordan will rush up into his mouth.
Job 40:24 (40:19) [Yet one] shall take him in his sight; [one] shall catch [him] with a cord, and pierce his nose.

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Job 41:1 (40:20) But wilt thou catch the serpent with a hook, and put a halter about his nose?
Job 41:2 (40:21) Or wilt thou fasten a ring in his nostril, and bore his lip with a clasp?
Job 41:3 (40:22) Will he address thee with a petition? softly, with the voice of a suppliant?
Job 41:4 (40:23) And will he make a covenant with thee? and wilt thou take him for a perpetual servant?
Job 41:5 (40:24) And wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or bind him as a sparrow for a child?
Job 41:6 (40:25) And do the nations feed upon him, and the nations of the Phoenicians share him?

Job 41:7 (40:26) And all the ships come together would not be able to bear the mere skin of his tail; neither [shall they carry] his head in fishing-vessels.
Job 41:8 (40:27) But thou shalt lay thy hand upon him [once], remembering the war that is waged by his mouth; and let it not be done any more.

Job 41:9 (41:0) Hast thou not seen him? and hast thou not wondered at the things said [of him]?
Job 41:10 (41:1) Dost thou not fear because preparation has been made by me? for who is there that resists me?

Job 41:11 (41:2) Or who will resist me, and abide, since the whole [world] under heaven is mine?

Job 41:12 (41:3) I will not be silent because of him: though because of his power [one] shall pity his antagonist.

Job 41:13 (41:4) Who will open the face of his garment? and who can enter within the fold of his breastplate?
Job 41:14 (41:5) Who will open the doors of his face? terror is round about his teeth.
Job 41:15 (41:6) His inwards are as brazen plates, and the texture of his [skin] as a smyrite stone.
Job 41:16 (41:7) One [part] cleaves fast to another, and the air cannot come between them.
Job 41:17 (41:8) They will remain united each to the other: they are closely joined, and cannot be separated.

Job 41:18 (41:9) At his sneezing a light shines, and his eyes are [as] the appearance of the morning star.
Job 41:19 (41:10) Out of his mouth proceed as it were burning lamps, and as it were hearths of fire are cast abroad.
Job 41:20 (41:11) Out of his nostrils proceeds smoke of a furnace burning with fire of coals.
Job 41:21 (41:12) His breath is [as] live coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.
Job 41:22 (41:13) And power is lodged in his neck, before him destruction runs.
Job 41:23 (41:14) The flesh also of his body is joined together: [if one] pours [violence] upon him, he shall not be moved.
Job 41:24 (41:15) His heart is firm as a stone, and it stands like an unyielding anvil.
Job 41:25 (41:16) And when he turns, [he is] a terror to the four-footed wild beasts which leap upon the earth.

Job 41:26 (41:17) If spears should come against him, [men] will effect nothing, [either with] the spear or the breast-plate.
Job 41:27 (41:18) For he considers iron as chaff, and brass as rotten wood.
Job 41:28 (41:19) The bow of brass shall not would him, he deems a slinger as grass.
Job 41:29 (41:20) Mauls are counted as stubble; and he laughs to scorn the waving of the firebrand.
Job 41:30 (41:21) His lair is [formed of] sharp points; and all the gold of the sea under him is an immense [quantity of] clay.

Job 41:31 (41:22) He makes the deep boil like a brazen caldron; and he regards the sea as a pot of ointment,
Job 41:32 (41:23) and the lowest part of the deep as a captive: he reckons the deep as [his] range.

Job 41:33 (41:24) There is nothing upon the earth like to him, formed to be sported with by my angels.
Job 41:34 (41:25) He beholds every high thing: and he is king of all that are in the waters.

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Job 42:1 Then Job answered and said to the Lord,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do all things, and nothing is impossible with thee.
Job 42:3 For who is he that hides counsel from thee? or who keeps back his words, and thinks to hide them from thee? and who will tell me what I knew not, great and wonderful things which I understood not?
Job 42:4 But hear me, O Lord, that I also may speak: and I will ask thee, and do thou teach me.
Job 42:5 I have heard the report of thee by the ear before; but now mine eye has seen thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I have counted myself vile, and have fainted: and I esteem myself dust and ashes.

Job 42:7 And it came to pass after the Lord had spoken all these words to Job, [that] the Lord said to Eliphaz the Thaemanite, Thou hast sinned, and thy two friends: for ye have not said anything true before me, as my servant Job [has].
Job 42:8 Now then take seven bullocks, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and he shall offer a burnt-offering for you. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will only accept him: for but his sake, I would have destroyed you, for ye have not spoken the truth against my servant Job.
Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Thaemanite, and Baldad the Sauchite, and Sophar the Minaean, went and did as the Lord commanded them: and he pardoned their sin for the sake of Job.

Job 42:10 And the Lord prospered Job: and when he prayed also for his friends, he forgave them [their] sin: and the Lord gave Job twice as much, even the double of what he had before.
Job 42:11 And all his brethren and his sisters heard all that had happened to him, and they came to him, and [so did] all that had known him from the first: and they ate and drank with him, and comforted him, and wondered at all that the Lord had brought upon him: and each one gave him a lamb, and four drachms’ weight of gold, even of unstamped [gold].

Job 42:12 And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job, [more] than the beginning: and his cattle were fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, a thousand she-asses of the pastures.
Job 42:13 And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14 And he called the first Day, and the second Casia, and the third Amalthaea’s horn.
Job 42:15 And there were not found in comparison with the daughters of Job, fairer [women] than they in all the world: and their father gave them an inheritance among their brethren.

Job 42:16 And Job lived after [his] affliction a hundred and seventy years: and all the years he lived were two hundred and forty: and Job saw his sons and his sons’ sons, the fourth generation.
Job 42:17 And Job died, an old man and full of days: (42:17A) and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. (42:17B) This man is described in the Syriac book [as] living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab; (42:17C) and having taken an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose name was Ennon. And he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth from Abraam. (42:17D) And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he also ruled over: first, Balac, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dennaba: but after Balac, Jobab, who is called Job, and after him Asom, who was governor out of the country of Thaeman: and after him Adad, the son of Barad, who destroyed Madiam in the plain of Moab; and the name of his city was Gethaim. (42:17E) And [his] friends who came to him were Eliphaz, of the children of Esau, king of the Thaemanites, Baldad sovereign of the Sauchaeans, Sophar king of the Minaeans.

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Continues: Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue

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“For He will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God.” (Job 34:23 KJ21)

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Note:

The Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture; therefore the Word of God is inseparable from the Spirit of God. God is Spirit and the Holy spirit is not on other entity, it is the Power of God itself. The Scriptures introduce the reader to the Holy Spirit and the Spirit applies the truths of the Word to the hearts of the reader. Scripture must be interpreted in the immediate context of personal prayer. The Bible promises over and over that when we seek God, he will be found. The same is true if we seek his power. The “knowledge of God” is an essential feature of Christian attainment, according to the apostolic standard. Those “who know not God” are among those whom vengeance is to overtake (2 Thessalonians 1: 8). Knowledge of God is the basis of sonship to God. Without it, we cannot enter the divine family. How can we love and serve a being whom we do not know? Knowledge is the foundation of all. It is the rock upon which everlasting life itself is built. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, The Only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 27: 3).

Prayer is the medium that brings individuals into contact with the same Spirit who inspired the writers of the Bible. To hear what the Spirit of the Only One God is saying through the Word you must encounter God through prayer. Prayer is the means that we must use to understand the Word of God. Without the assistance of the Holy Spirit in prayer, our Bible study will be in vain. Let us ask for the Spirit to speak to us through the Word.

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